1999-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• Prepared and adopted a handbook for Boards and Report of the Committees to serve as a guide for existing com- Board of Selectmen mittee members and a recruitment tool to make it easier for new volunteers to step forward. Residents of the Town of Mashpee: • Conducted meeting with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council to review open space It is a pleasure to report to you in my second year as issues. Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. The past year was marked by the continued renewal of energy on the Worked with the Mashpee 2000 Committee to Board, with new Selectmen Fred Blythe and John bring forward a proposal for a memorial park for Cahalane joining the Board with new leadership and Mashpee. new ideas to help move the Town forward.Along with Selectmen David Leveille and Wayne Taylor, these Worked with the Chief of Police and the Leisure new members have created a cooperative spirit of Services Director to construct the Town's first working together which serves the Town extremely skateboard park. well as we move into the twenty-first century. • Reviewed various departmental fees for updat- Over the previous year, a key dominating issue has ing. involved the finances of the Town. With a rapidly growing school population in recent years, along with • Worked with the Fire Station Building a new high school to fund, Mashpee has suffered from Committee to complete design work for a newly the demand for services outgrowing our revenue renovated central fire station. sources. This problem came to a head last year when voters turned down a proposition 2-fi override to pro- Approved a project for the development of a vide the Town with additional education funding. Habitat for Humanity home to benefit a Mashpee family in need of affordable housing. Working closely with School officials and the re Adopted new regulations with the Town of Finance Committee, we developed an emergency p g financial plan to meet the most critical needs of the Falmouth for the sharing of Waquoit Bay School Department without hurting the school cur- resources. riculum. With enrollment growth slowing down and a much-delayed increase in our State aid for education, • Completed construction of a new culvert for we are currently in the process of creating some sta- Monomoscoy Island. bility for our Town Budget, without, we are happy to announce, the need for any overrides for operating Worked with our legislators to provide testimony budgets. I am also happy to report that putting togeth- and information for increased Chapter 70 State er this funding program served as a team-building Aid to Mashpee. exercise between our policy-making Boards. Through this process, we have forged closer and more under- Assisted the Board of Health with a new contract standing working relationships among the School generating savings for the operation of the trans- Committee, Finance Committee and the Board of fer station. Selectmen, which are serving us well as we move for- ward together. • Adopted a comprehensive police recruitment policy granting additional credit for Mashpee In addition to financial issues, the following is a residents. brief list of some of the activities of the Board during 1999: • Adopted a new policy for the maintenance of pri- vate roads. • Reconfigured the Watershed Management Committee into a permanent working committee Conducted the Town's first non-resident taxpay- to review water quality issues for our community. er forum to share information and receive input from seasonal residents. • Devoted a great deal of energy to dealing with the military to advocate for the Town on matters Moved forward permitting process for dredging related to the MMR base pollution. the Mashpee River. 9